I’ve just had the craziest of times lately……wat with doing a live portrait sitting of Sir William Laurence in Wolverhampton art Gallery and it being filmed by Art Council England as a showcase study soon to be posted on the ACE website……to being interviewed on The Culture Show by Mat Fraser posing nude as I created a paint drawing of him to being awarded an Ability Media International award 2010 in the Visual Arts ……where is it all going to….

Let me start with Sir William’s portrait sitting…..many of you might not know of Sir William Laurence. let me tel you he is a fascinating character and has been methodically and some what quietly changing attitudes towards perceptions of disabled people within the tourist industry. Sir William has taken it upon himself to do this by placing himself in local government and on company board of directors ‘to change attitudes towards disabled people by just being there’.

Sir William says:

“When Tanya said that she would like to draw / paint me at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, I was amazingly honoured and, when she said that a group of students were going to do the same but drawing only, I was totally gob smacked. I found it a very satisfying experience, one to be highly recommended and in the knowledge that ACE are supporting disability art.”

DaDa International Fest 2010 this yr has been a fantastic celebration of Disability Art world wide and it totally excites me as a disabled artist to see our art being recognised as an artform in its own right on mainstream TV for the first time ever and i feel massively proud to have being part of a pivotal pioneering moment in the history of Disability Art. When Mat Fraser phoned me to ask me to be interview on The Culture Show of course i said yes…..who wouldn’t…..then as I spoke to the director of the program about how we were going to create an interview between Mat and me as Mat wanted to pose nude. We thought the only way this was going to wk was if i made a drawing of him as i would in any portrait sitting and as some of my sitters have posed nude this was only natural to me to do it this way, plus it created a fab opportunity to have the world see me make as well as talk about my work and to spread the word about Disability Arts without compromising.

filming at The Culture Show

The response has been really positive and lets hope it continues to open the front doors! The Culture Show thank you for doing good. The commissioned drawing of Mat Fraser made on The Culture Show has been donated to DaDa and will be auctioned off to raise funds for the next Festival 2012 so look out for that.